Jayne-Anita Smith

Lives and works in Halifax, UK

Artist statement

This new series of figurative paintings are from new body of work that has developed over the last couple of years and follows a shift in practice. At their inception, images are generated through a process of organic drawings which I then dissect and use to create collage studies which provide the foundation for new paintings. Taking the female form as my starting point, my practice considers the connection between the feminine and the spiritual, and the negative impact of a patriarchal led society. The construction of disparate collage sections build to create an immersive world that echoes the emotional disturbance of the struggle between self and other; one that seeks to envelop its subject. As the fragments and shapes shift, so does the conversation between former and future self, questioning the concept of our own being, and challenging the observer to draw parallels with our internal human state, where emotion and memory are rooted in the instinctive and primal.

Artwork